The concept of cultural heritage is contested. What a government ministry, museum or scholarly organization defines as cultural heritage may differ from others’ definitions.
It can be both tangible and intangible, such as books or manuscripts. Cultural heritage also meets a need: people feel a bond with their past through their culture.
Intangible Cultural Heritage
Intangible cultural heritage includes practices, representations, expressions, knowledge and skills – such as the way a baguette is prepared or how to make a rumba – that communities, groups and, in some cases, individuals identify as part of their culture. UNESCO’s 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage provides guidelines for documenting these customs and placing them on its international list.
The challenge is to preserve this heritage while keeping it alive and transmitting it to future generations. This is difficult but not impossible. The speed at which culture is becoming globalized poses a real threat to the preservation of unique traditions, and it’s up to us as a community to take action. Technical advances in digital technology also help, allowing us to record and archive intangible cultural heritage content more effectively than ever before. For example, dance processing technology can be used to analyze stored dance movements and recognize different types of styles, reducing the amount of time needed for archiving.
Physical Cultural Heritage
Cultural heritage can be both tangible and intangible. Tangible cultural heritage includes physical traces of a culture including buildings, monuments and artifacts as well as natural areas like archaeological sites or precisely delineated landscapes of outstanding universal value.
The intangible aspect of cultural heritage is a combination of practices, representations, expressions and knowledge that a community or group recognizes as a part of their culture. This may include social practices, traditional craftsmanship, performing arts and local knowledge and skills like a specific dance or the polyphonic singing of the Aka of Central Africa.
The preservation of cultural heritage is a complex task and requires a wide range of different approaches. Some cultural heritage can be saved by means of digitization, while other aspects require more in-depth methods like the training of specialists to maintain these traditions over long periods of time. Other cultural heritage is prone to damage because of natural phenomena or human-made events.
Preservation and Conservation
Cultural heritage preservation involves efforts to safeguard historic sites and artifacts from damage or destruction. This can be caused by natural disasters, human interference, neglect or economic development projects. Cultural heritage can also be lost because of political instability, war or genocide.
Preserving cultural heritage is a global effort. Governments play an important role in this process by funding and supporting initiatives to protect cultural heritage. They also work with communities to ensure that their cultural traditions are preserved and celebrated.
Grassroots movements can also be crucial in preserving cultural heritage. These grassroots efforts often involve residents of a town or region who work together to preserve their culture and history through events, campaigns and education programs. This type of involvement can help to foster a sense of community pride and ownership of cultural heritage. It can also help to foster a better understanding of cultural heritage worldwide. In addition, private companies can play a significant role in the preservation of cultural heritage by providing financial support or through the donation of materials and supplies.
Management
Heritage is prone to many threats including war and conflict, climate change, natural disasters or even just the natural aging of materials. CHM professionals are dedicated to preserving artifacts, historic buildings and cultural landscapes and ensuring that the information they hold remains accessible to the public.
Research into cultural heritage also includes a focus on the economic benefits of protecting culture, such as the impact of tourism revenues and local employment opportunities. A growing number of publications focuses on the intersection between economy and heritage at the city level, with the theme of ‘Heritage and sustainable development’ being one of the most popular in this field.
Another emerging area of research is the adaptive reuse of cultural heritage sites and buildings. This is a way of preserving and restoring heritage by giving it new functions, increasing its longevity and reducing environmental impacts, while improving urban livability. This approach is exemplified by organisations like Transkribus which is helping to preserve historical documents and make them available for future generations.